


light a flame

by malignance



Series: you and me, the sky and the sea [4]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:49:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22335835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/malignance/pseuds/malignance
Summary: Ben isn't a boy, hasn't been a boy in years, so how is it that Evie makes him feel like a fifteen year old all over again?
Relationships: Ben/Evie (Disney: Descendants)
Series: you and me, the sky and the sea [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1537201
Comments: 3
Kudos: 57





	light a flame

Ben's older, yes, but not necessarily wiser.

Being king meant... well, it meant a lot of things. It meant he wasn't a teenager anymore. Probably. 

Teenagers aren't fit to run kingdoms, he's pretty sure. That definitely makes him an adult, in some way. So yes, he's _just_ celebrated his twentieth birthday, technically still young and fresh faced. But he'd also been a king for two years leading up to that big _2 - 0_ , that must count for something.

Still, even if he knows he _should_ be grown, _should_ be smart and mature and whatever the opposite of a teenage boy was, when he catches Evie stumbling out of a tiny storage closet looking thoroughly kissed and satisfied, he feels like he's fifteen again.

Her hair is tousled, lipstick on her mouth half gone, top buttons of her blouse undone.

His mouth is dry, because Evie dressed prim and proper and put together was one thing, but Evie looking half a mess, face flushed pink and pleasantly out of breath is a whole other thing.

Looking at her like this, choking back on the breath caught in his throat, he feels like he's back in high school again, marvelling at Audrey in her cheer uniform for the first time, ogling Lonnie's legs when she wore a mini skirt one summer.

He's completely out of depth, and feels more un-king like than he has ever felt before.

Doug steps out from the closet behind her just as Ben turns around to run away.

*

He's doomed.

He's been staring at his stack of paperwork for the better part of the day, staring and hoping if he looked long enough it would either magically disappear, or he could somehow stop thinking about Evie just outside his door.

It really, _really_ didn't help that every once in a while she comes in (without even bothering to knock anymore because she'd gotten tired of having to do it every time she needed to speak to him, which was quite a lot) to ask his opinion on something, or to get his signature on something before leaving just as quick as she'd come in.

When he had put her office just outside of his, he really hadn't known it would come to bite him back eventually.

(Then again, how was he to know that he'd one day be haunted by the image of Evie half undone, cheeks pink, lips swollen, chest heaving, eyes wild- _wait, okay, stop_ _._ He really needed to end this, whatever this was. Now).

Evie bursts in again, a flurry of questions on her lips, papers bundled in her arms, pen perched behind her ear. 

(And okay, so maybe Evie was regularly a vision, even like this, hands waving frantically and murmuring words too fast for him to understand under her breath. Maybe seeing her stumbling out of that closet had only, _finally,_ shot through that wall of denial Ben had built up steadily over time).

"Jane told me to tell you that you need to call her back about the whole _ball_ thing for the big anniversary, because she's organising pretty much the whole thing and needs some feedback, and I need to know whether you'll be attending alone or not because I _really_ need to sort out the seating and it's only _three weeks away!_ And also you need to give some big speech so you really should be working on writing that, like, pronto. Or I could help you because actually the other day I got to thinking and I may or may not have drafted one for you already. But it's just an outline, mostly!! The important stuff you'll still have to fill in yourself, but, well, I thought that since you don't like making big speeches anyway I could help you this once. Not that you _have_ to use my draft, if you don't want to, of course!!" 

Words just tumble out of her mouth, fast and strung together and Ben wonders how he actually managed to understand all of that.

She hasn't actually looked at him since she came in, eyes trained on the pile of papers she was cradling, until she plucks out one of the papers and slides it across the table towards him. "Oh, and I need you to sign this."

Then she looks at him finally, slightly out of breath from the tangled mess of words that had just fallen out of her mouth, and smiles something small and a little bit shy. 

(Yep. The wall is completely gone now, and Ben can admit to himself that Evie was really, truly, honestly, beautiful. No going back now).

"I'll call Jane in a bit to sort everything out there. You can leave your draft of the speech here and I'll look over it later. We both know how horrible I am at planning and giving those things so I appreciate your help, really."

He's relieved that despite her ability to somehow make him feel like he's suddenly a silly school boy again, he manages to keep his composure around her, and signs his name on the dotted line with a few quick, practised motions. 

When he looks up again, she's beaming, and his heart stutters for a beat. 

"Right, okay!! I'll bring over the draft later, I think I still have a few adjustments to make."

Once she's gone, and his door shuts with a soft click, Ben lets his head fall onto his desk with a loud _thwack_.

*

This is stupid, incredibly so. And maybe that makes him a little stupid too, but that's hardly news.

Every time he sees Doug he feels anger flare up from somewhere, making him want to scowl, and that was something a king just _did not do._

He can't even really blame Doug for anything. It's just that every time he thinks about Evie coming out of that closet (and he thinks about it a lot more than he probably should), he gets so lost in the memory, in the sight of her, and then he remembers Doug coming out after her, and the knowledge that _he'd_ been the one to make her look like that suddenly shatters any and all illusions Ben had about Evie.

The anger (jealousy) is his own fault, he knows that much, but part of him wishes he could just blame Doug and be done with it.

But it's not that easy, because he knows he has no right to be envious, no right to be angry for a girl that wasn't his.

Still, just because he knew, rationally, that he shouldn't be angry, the flames still dance just beneath his eyes, whenever he sees them together.

The nature of their relationship didn't help things either. 

It seemed one day Doug and Evie were as happy as they could be, laughing and touching and being deliriously in love, and then the next day they couldn't even stand to be in the same room as each other. It frustrated Ben to no end, because it would be so much easier if he could just know that she was in love with Doug, and happy and satisfied and he could slowly begin to just _let go_ of whatever it was that he felt for her.

But then they'd break up for a couple days, and despite his rationality, and knowing that it wouldn't last, he feels that spark of hope anyway. That maybe this time it would be permanent, and he could-

Could-

_God. He probably shouldn't finish that sentence._

*

He's standing stiff, a ballroom full of eyes on him.

He doesn't actually see any of them, doesn't even really register what he's saying, just that he's prattling off every word Evie had written down for him on the cards clutched tightly in his hands (he should've known, Evie's draft wasn't really a draft at all, and he'd never been more thankful to have her in his life).

It's hard to concentrate on anything but her, standing there in a gown, looking very much like a Goddess of legend, ethereal and gorgeous and otherworldly.

Her right brow is half raised, like she's vaguely amused, like she can see right through him and his diplomatic smile and knows he actually hates being up here and talking to all of them and is nervous beyond belief.

(He wouldn't be surprised if she did. Sometimes he thinks she knows him better than he knows himself).

Once the speech is over, and he feels he can breathe again, the crowd erupts into applause, and he smiles a little wryly knowing that it was all because of Evie.

"Nice job, your majesty." Evie whispers, grinning, unaware that the very sensation of her breath against his ear made Ben's knees almost give out from under him.

Ben scoffs, hoping to cover up any obvious outward reaction to her proximity. "I'll never get used to this. The speeches and the speaking in front of huge crowds thing. Any chance you could take my place next time?"

Evie laughs a little at that, and he tries to tamper down the pride that surges in knowing he'd been the one to do that.

"You look better in a crown than I ever could, Ben. I think I'll stick to running things behind the scenes, thank you."

He frowns a little at that, because, _what?_ He cannot even begin to comprehend why she'd want to just hide herself behind him, not when it seemed obvious to him that she was made for the spotlight, to be admired and yes, perhaps a crown wouldn't suit her very much. But a tiara? Now that he knows she would pull off magnificently. 

He doesn't tell her this though, because he's pretty sure that would be stepping over a line and into uncharted territory, and he thinks a king should probably afford to be a little more careful with things like this.

Things like romance, and love, and pretty girls that make a king feel like a small insecure boy.

"Where's Doug?" He asks, and hopes his tone comes off casual and not at all bitter or scathing.

Evie's face wrinkles a little at the question, at Doug's name. (And damn if Ben doesn't feel that shot of hope again, that spark of _what if what if what if_ ).

"Don't know. Don't care." She answers, frowning into her champagne glass as Ben smiles into his.

"Are you guys alright?" 

He asks this every time, and her reply would always be _"No. We're not."_ but then she'd get back together with Doug a few days later anyway, so Ben's learnt not to hold onto that response.

"Yeah." She says instead, and Ben perks up. "This time? I think we're fine, like actually. We might be broken up for good. And, is it weird that I'm kind of relieved? Like, for a few months it kinda just felt like we were both so desperately holding onto something we thought we wanted, something that was familiar. But, well, we finally admitted that forcing ourselves to stay together when we didn't want to be together anymore, just wasn't working out. I think we might be friends still, because I do still love him, probably not in the same way a girlfriend is supposed to love a boyfriend, but I still do. It feels kind of weird that we're not together like that anymore, but also kind of freeing at the same time, you know?"

He does know, kind of. When he'd broken up with Mal it had mostly felt the same. He'd stayed because he felt like he should, loved her because he felt like that was what was to be expected, and they had let that go on for entirely too long because they were scared of what would happen if they let each other go. 

Their break up had been far from amicable, though, and in the end they could never really recover from the scathing words they'd yelled at each other during that last fight.

Ben is glad that at least, Evie can still call Doug a friend.

"Yeah, I get it. Mal and I, we were like that too."

She nods at that, no doubt having heard the details of their relationship and its subsequent demise from Mal. 

"Cheers, then," She says as she raises her glass, "to failed relationships."

Ben laughs, taps his glass against hers, and downs the rest of his champagne in one shot.

"To failed relationships." He echoes, then adds, under his breath, "And new ones too."

*

She finds him brooding, sitting in the middle of the lake, shirking his responsibilities.

Maybe he's a little drunk too.

"Ben," Evie sighs, like his mother used to when she caught him doing something she didn't like, "what are you doing?"

Ben frowns. "Swimming. Obviously."

He probably should be used to a few setbacks at this point, a few older, unwelcome voices who think he doesn't know how to run his own kingdom, that he isn't fit to be a king. _"He's too young, too foolish, can't you see? He's just a boy! We can't trust him with these kind of things. What does he know of the world? The real world? Outside of his precious little castle?"_

He thought he might be used to hearing those kind of things at this point. But turns out, he wasn't as impenetrable as he thought, and as soon as the meeting had ended, he'd gone home and attempted to finish an entire bottle of vodka on his own, until he thought a late night dip was a good idea. 

"I take it the meeting didn't go well, then."

She ends up seating herself on a nearby rock, and Ben feels a desperate kind of itch to swim over and drag her down with him, like maybe if he had her close he might be able to feel less miserable.

"Oh, it went fine. Someone just _had_ to point out that I clearly didn't know what I was doing, since I'm so _young_ and _dumb_ and don't understand proper politics or how to run my own kingdom. Like I'm- like I'm some kind of _irresponsible child._ " 

The vodka clearly hadn't dulled his anger any.

"Ben." She sighs, and this time it's not in disappointment, just in a resigned kind of sadness. "You know you shouldn't listen to those- those _fossils_. Everyone here loves you. You were the one who brought the Isle kids over, gave them a proper home, helped them. You saved them, Ben. You saved _me_. You're a great king, and Auradon is lucky to have you."

_You saved me._

He sobers just a little, at that.

He finds himself believing her words, somehow.

"Apparently that isn't _enough._ Not for them."

He means to whisper those words, but she hears them anyway.

She huffs, stares out at the lake as if searching for something, and then jumps in.

He startles, and stands, bare chest emerging from the water.

The water only reaches above her knees, so she wades through with a determined look on her face until she reaches him.

She opens her mouth to say something, probably to tell him off for being too self pitying and annoying, but then she seems to realise he's not wearing a shirt, and then her words kind of just get stuck in her throat at the sight of his chest. 

He thinks he probably imagines the way she swallows, slow, at the sight of him half naked, that it's just his drunk mind playing tricks on him when he recognises that heated look in her eyes.

"Do you think I'm worthless, Ben? A failure?" She asks, ever so softly, though her expression is hard and tight.

He splutters, choking out the "What? No! Of course not!" as soon as her words register in his head.

She smiles a little, and he's utterly confused. 

"My mother used to tell me that, you know. And I would just believe her because, she's an adult, of course she's right, of course she knows what she's saying. But, Ben, people are always going to put you down, even though they're adults and they should probably know better. That doesn't mean you should _believe_ them. That doesn't mean they're _right._ I need you to know that."

Ben takes a moment to let those words sink in.

Evie's never spoken about her mother before. At least, not to him. He knows she doesn't let that bit of information go lightly, so he takes the proper time to listen, to digest. 

(He hates the Evil Queen in that moment. Feels nothing but pure, unbridled hatred for the woman who had hurt and scarred Evie like this, for telling her she was anything but beautiful and smart and wonderful).

"Okay," He exhales, after a while, "okay. I'll try not to- I won't let them get to me next time."

She grins, relief written all over her features. "Good."

What he does next, he fully blames on the alcohol in his system.

Sober, coherent Ben would not reach his hand up, and cup Evie's cheek with his hand.

It's unfortunate that drunk, incoherent Ben, does exactly that.

Evie lets out a small gasp at the contact, but Ben barely notices. All he knows is he's wanted to touch Evie forever, and now that he's finally doing it, even if it's just the skin of her cheek against his palm, it's all he can think about, all he can feel.

"She's wrong." He murmurs. "Your mother. You're brilliant, Evie, you've always been."

Ben hopes he'll remember this moment when he wakes up tomorrow, because she's looking at him like he's just turned her entire world on its axis, and the smile she shows him after is so sweet it stops his world from spinning.

*

It starts, and ends, with the closet.

Ben and Evie are chatting in the hallway.

(He's getting lost in her eyes. She's trying to fight the temptation to glance at his lips).

Chad's voice floats down the hallway from somewhere behind them, and as soon as Evie picks up on the sound, she's pulling Ben with her into the tiny storage closet, and shutting the door firmly behind them.

The closet really wasn't designed for more than one person, so they're pressed flush against each other, their limbs tangled awkwardly in their effort to settle in the small space.

"What- Uh- What??"

Ben stumbles over his words, too busy trying _not_ to think about the way Evie's body was pressing against his to form a proper sentence.

"Sorry, but I heard Chad coming and- well- I panicked. He's been trying to ask me out ever since he found out Doug and I broke up, and he won't stop bothering me about it. Apparently he doesn't know what the word _no_ means. And I just, I really didn't want to have to deal with him today."

She huffs, obviously frustrated because of Chad, and his voice growing louder on the other side of the door, but her cheeks are pink, making Ben think she's not entirely unaware of their position either.

"Right. And this was the best solution?"

She hadn't been looking at him before, but her eyes snap up to meet his as soon as he asks the question.

She glares. His breath hitches.

"I told you, I panicked!" She whisper yells, and then freezes when Chad walks right past the door.

Ben can't find it in himself to look away from her, watching as she holds her breath, then finally relaxing once Chad was gone.

She doesn't make an attempt to move though, at least not immediately, and Ben takes full advantage of that second of hesitation.

He reaches up and takes her chin in his fingers, tilting her head up so that she has to look at him once again.

"Evie." He whispers, though he has no idea what he's actually doing, or what he should do next.

Thankfully, she seems to know exactly what he wants, so before he can even get out another word, she's wrapping her arms around his neck, pressing herself even closer to him, and leaning up to kiss him.

As soon as her lips are on his, he lets himself go. He pours out every moment he's been yearning for her into his kisses, as his mouth travels from hers down to her chin, to her throat, to her collarbone. 

She inhales, sharp, and brings up her legs to wrap around his waist as his mouth works its way down. His hands move from where they'd been wandering beneath her shirt to under her thighs, holding her up and securing her position against him.

"Ben." 

She whines his name, and that sound almost breaks him entirely. He pulls his head back and crashes his mouth back onto hers, desperate and needy and so far gone already.

The king in Ben worries about getting caught in such a compromising position with Evie. The teenage boy in Ben doesn't care about anything but having her in his arms and kissing her until they're both breathless.

Then Evie pulls her shirt off over her head, tosses it aside, looks at him with a wicked kind of grin on her face, and the teenage boy wins out almost pathetically easy.

(And it probably always will, at least when Evie's involved).


End file.
